I went to my first con last year August Manchester Mcm due to my friend having a spare ticket.Part way through I lost him at the con and that kinda stressed me out since I've never been to one before at the time, eventually I had no idea what to do so I just walked about along with playing on the games and it wasnt an enjoyable experience since I walk and play games generally, its just different because I had a cosplay on. What do you guys generally do at cons when your by yourself? Also I didn't get much experience out of my first con so you can treat me as a beginner and give me advice for cons in general. Dont get me wrong I had a good time at manchester Mcm it well didnt meet up to my expectation but that was mostly my fault letting my nerves get to me, resulted in not talking to many people but I've fixed that now

Thanks for reading, hope you can help me, see you at midlands expo, look for a viewtiful joe cosplayer

First up, MCM is an expo not a con. The experience of an actual con is completely different and a million times better. Nonetheless it is a great way to start out to see if cosplay and mixing with others into anime is the thing for you before you start forking out for train fares, membership, hotels, food and other expenses over the weekends (not even beginning to include costs for costumes like wigs, footwear and the garments themselves)

Regular cons take up three days normally and run from midday friday before coming to a close and usually finishing up with some sort of party on the Sundays. There's lots of parties, panels and cosplay comps and usually have better guests than an Expo would, so if that is high up on your list, I'd really recommend checking one out.

The best way in my experience to make the most of the event is to get involved! It's really scary to begin with but if there's one thing I've learned about the community it's that everyone is willing to make new friends as it's hard to find people interested in the same things as you in 'the real world'. So when these events come along they're going to want to take full advantage of this.
There's plenty of ways to find out what people are doing, such as joining this forum and keeping an eye out for cosplay groups and joining in. People will gather for meet ups and that is how you will make most of your friends, or just by chatting on the forums here. You're not going to be best friends with everyone and might even meet people once, but eventually you start to remember faces and names and you will most likely encounter people with similar interests to you.
Facebook offers groups for people attending a similar event and that's another way to find out about the groups so take advantage of these. Before you know it you'll be a con regular!

If you're going to stay in the comfort zone of MCM Expo for a while which is totally fine as I did this too, I'd offer the advice of not buying much at all. A lot of what is sold there is fake and massively overpriced. You can scope out the things you want and find the genuine products online for the correct/fair price. There are a few reputable stalls which often return if you want figures: Neon Martian, Sheffield Space Center (You should know these being a Sheffield Local and all!) are good examples.

Sorry for the info dump but I hope this helps! The key is to check out what others are up to and get friends to join you. You can keep up to date on schedules and online news to plan out exactly where and when you want to be. Dont hesitate to message me if you have any questions.

Basically I'll echo what Angel said. At a proper con there is a lot more stuff to do in terms of panels. MCM is more like a trade fair, although there are a few other things to do like watching stuff in the cosplay stage or the masquerade. You will probably have most fun if you're willing to talk to people you don't know- and believe me I do get how scary this can be especially if you're like me and get nervous around new people. If I get bored at expo I usually just head over to the stage area and see if something interest me.

Quote ThisRandomScrub:It yeah sorry about the mess up with con and expo, you can tell im a beginner making that error plus my name suggests it . thanks for the advice

No problem! You're new to it and it is a common mistake. Even these days I see people who have been going to it for years and still calling it a con. Some years they do have some good guests so I dont always write it off, if you're prepared to stand in line like a trooper for what can be up to a few hours.
But yeah, if you figure out what you're there for then that would be your best chance of figuring out how to manage your time since it can actually fly when you're event hopping!

hi dude that bad luck with losing the person you were with at yer first expo at my fist expo at london i made a huge pac man costume which made it hard to know here my group was due to poor visability , getting around in such a bulky costume was hard , i did manage to do some gaming n stuff by opening the vent on the top and lowering the costume down , i aslo suffered badly from nerves and the heat and the paint fumes and so we ended up leaving early which majorly sucks .anywho ive never really be to an expo alone always in a group and if we get lost in london the best network to keep in touch with each other is O2 as the 02 arenas close by it gives good signal and vodaphone had no signal at all really even with phones it hard to hear one another so we arrange a meet up point generally by the stairs or by a marker such as N1 for each warehouse entrance . why we go to expo? amonge many resons its a great way to meet people with similar intrests , to get complements and photos of your costume ,to join photoshoots with charactors from same series / game , its great for boosting comfidence and bringing you closer to freinds especially if you help each other out making them , on the expo side there aslways cool stuff at expo from new game and films , book sighnings , somtime remote controlled helicopter stands , robot fighting , wrestling , talk panals with stars , gaming tornements and so much more . i could go on :O but i hope this helps , lemme know if you need any help or advice ( isee you doing the same charactor as me ). bye

Hey dude, im even more of a rookie than yourself! As im looking for my first outings this year in July and Oct. Get in touch if you want to meet up in London if you are even heading this way! we can wonder around and look lost together